


Stardust

by importantgalaxydefendor



Category: VIXX
Genre: Alternate Universe - Space, M/M, sci-fi!AU, space military!au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-29
Updated: 2016-12-18
Packaged: 2018-08-11 19:02:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7904092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/importantgalaxydefendor/pseuds/importantgalaxydefendor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's been nearly 100 years since the first human colony was established on Mars. Now it's the year 2186 and there are countless colonies on hundreds of worlds. But human colonies are disappearing and no one knows why.</p><p>The rating for this fic is currently M overall, but varies chapter to chapter.</p><p>Not looking for crits, this is just for fun.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Final Frontier

In 2095 humanity established its first colony in space. The Mars colony had been in the works since the early 2000s and the only reason for the nearly 100 year delay was simply the fact that the governments of Earth knew that if it failed for whatever reason, well, that was likely going to be the end of space colonization. At least, for a long time. 

Miraculously, not only did the colony survive with minimal setbacks, it thrived. Very quickly the governments of Earth established more colonies; not only on Mars but on the moons of Jupiter, on helium mining stations near Saturn, on research platforms just beyond Pluto—outside of the termination shock, the boundary marking the outer limits of Sol's influence. 

It was here in the heliosheath, where the solar winds were slowed, FTL travel—faster than light travel—research was held. Humanity had gotten close in the late 2000s with warp drives, but as the colonies and scientific research stations had been established in actual space the scientific knowledge of humanity had jumped forward by leaps and bounds. 

In the few short years between 2095 and the early 2120s, there had been too many breakthroughs to name. But the biggest of them all was when the scientific community finally got FTL travel to work. Actual FTL drives that functioned in starships of any size. This was even bigger than establishing the colony on Mars, really. As soon as ships could be built or retrofitted with the new FTL engine cores, travel time across the solar system and all of Earth's colonies dropped to next to nothing compared to what it had been.

Only then was the next step discussed: colonizing an extra-solar planet. In 2133 humanity set out to do just that. A garden world discovered in the early 2000s was selected as the first site for a number of factors, but mainly because it orbited a star known as Proxima Centauri. Proxima Centauri and its binary twins, Alpha Centauri A and B were the closest star system to the Sol system at just over four light years away. But with the combination of warp drives and FTL travel, humanity was able to establish an entirely functioning colony in the system in just a couple months. The garden world, originally named Proxima b when first discovered, was renamed by the colonists. From there on out it was referred to as Terra Nova—New Earth.

Humanity's expansion into space brought with it many new changes. A special branch of government was set up initially as an extension of the collective Earth governments but as the years passed the Federated Directorate of Earth Space (or colloquially, “the Directorate”) became less of an extension and more of its own governing body. And of course governing bodies came with militaries . 

The Directorate Navy was formally established in 2102 when it became clear that humanity was just going to keep expanding onward and outward. As technology expanded, so did the navy. Officially headquartered on Earth, the navy mainly worked out of the Directorate's primary space station, Landmark Station—named as a throwback to the Earth 1980s—which was in orbit around Proxima Centauri and also contained Earth space's parliament and other government functions.

Space and its history had always fascinated Hongbin. 

As a kid he watched all the holo-movies about humanity's adventures in space, and even the really really old moves that weren't even holo. The hero always went to space to prove himself, save humanity, or get the girl. And from a young age Hongbin knew that's all he wanted to do with his life. Go to space. 

So he read. He read everything he could have possibly gotten his hands on. Dinner was always eaten with a data pad in one hand, eyes scanning the screen as he ate blindly, which definitely annoyed his mother. But her nagging never deterred him. Hongbin knew that his future was out there in the stars, somewhere. He enlisted in the navy as soon as he was old enough to do so.

Even now, sitting in the galley of the ship that was his newest assignment, Hongbin kept his eyes on his data pad for the most part. He had only recently been promoted to his current rank and transferred out of his original posting—at first Hongbin had been assigned as an engineer to a research platform out beyond Pluto. While it hadn't been his first choice, it at least got Hongbin off Earth and into space. And with some hard work over the last couple years, he had finally managed to secure himself a more desirable position on an actual ship. 

It was a combat frigate, really, though who was the navy going to fight out here? Humanity was thus far alone in the universe. But nevertheless, the Directorate remained ever vigilante and ever prepared. And it was Hongbin's first time serving with the other half of the navy—the enlisted marines. There hadn't been much need for marines on the research station outside of a small handful of them assigned to guard rotations. Being with actual combat-ready marines now was very different. Hongbin had wanted to be a marine originally. They always had the best adventures in the holos, and definitely had more interesting day-to-day activities than he did as a research engineer, but well, certain things had disqualified him from that. 

There was a small group of marines in the galley with him, sat at a table a short distance away. He surreptitiously glanced over to them from his data pad, where he had been reading an article on on humanity's advancements into space, and how different the technology usage and colonial expansion jumped from 2095, to 2133, to the present 2186. In just fifty three short years humanity had gone from one small extra-solar colony on Terra Nova to hundreds of worlds and countless individual colonies. 

The marines seemed completely unaware of his presence and Hongbin found he didn't mind. This particular group of marines was what was known as a 'cabal', he had been told. There were two such cabals currently assigned to the ship; small groups of four marines each who worked together in combat and recon instead of as a larger squad as was the norm. And the reason for that was something that set them apart from the other enlisted members of the Navy, be it the actual naval branch or the marines.

These marines were gyrokinetics. Simply put, humans who were gyrokinetic were able to manipulate and control both gravity and dark matter. No one was really sure why once humanity expanded into space that a small handful of children were being born with this particularly ability. Some scientists theorized it had something to do with all the heavy metals or radiation encountered in space and on new worlds, but seeing as it didn't happen to more than 2% of the population no one was really sure. Studies were still on-going.

Gyrokinetic people, often times just referred to as 'kinetics' for ease of speech, were monitored closely from birth and usually recruited at a young age to join the military. The navy had several positions that lent themselves well to people with kinetic abilities; most were combat related. And most often the kinetic marines formed cabals like the group sitting by Hongbin. Some people were wary or even afraid of kinetics, and so they tended to stick together. 

Having never served with marines proper, nevermind kinetics, Hongbin took the opportunity to give them a quick look over. All four of them were wearing the same standard issue dark blue fatigues as him, though they definitely filled it out better than he did. Honestly, they simply looked like regular people and if he hadn't known differently there was no way Hongbin would have been able to guess there was anything special about them at all. Idly, he wondered if they received the same gene modifications he had been given in order to serve in space, or if their gyrokinetic abilities had precluded them from that.

“Wonshik,” one of the marines murmured; his voice very soft and contradictory to what the rest of him looked like, in Hongbin's opinion. “Didn't you want to head to the armory before we landed today? Could you look at the sighting on my X-12 while you're there? It was being finicky the last time I was at the range.” 

The marine Hongbin presumed to be Wonshik sat back in his seat and rolled his shoulders a bit. “Un, I guess I could.”

“Where are we headed anyway?” a different one of the four asked.

“The Hyades cluster. XO didn't say why.” the first marine responded and turned to glance at his friend, only to catch Hongbin's eyes from across the way as he did so. 

Hongbin quickly ducked his head and turned his face away, back to his data pad. His ears burned, and he felt himself growing red at the fact he'd gotten caught listening in. 

“I'll head off first, then.” Wonshik said as he stood and held a hand out. “Taekwoon, give me the key for your weapon locker.”

Hongbin watched out of the corners of his eyes as the soft spoken marine fished a small key from a pocket of his fatigues and handed it over to Wonshik who then headed off without another word. Hongbin figured he ought to hurry out of the galley as well, and quickly downed the rest of his breakfast before he scurried off. 

It wasn't too long before Hongbin and several others were summoned to the communications room located in the center of their ship for a briefing. He wondered if this meant he was going to be on the ground team when their ship finally touched down wherever they were going. 

Suddenly, the door behind Hongbin cycled open and he turned to glance over his shoulder at the person who entered. The second-in-command of the ship, the XO, was an intimidating woman who held the rank of Lieutenant-Commander and appeared to take absolutely no guff from anyone with her hair pulled back in a tight bun and a severe look on her face. 

“We're about five hours out from our destination. I realize this is a little earlier than a normal briefing would be but this isn't going to be a routine exercise.” she addressed the group from the front of the room once she had made her way there, and forewent a greeting entirely. After a pause to gauge that all eyes were on her, the XO continued. “I'm sure most of you know that we're headed to the Hyades cluster. Specifically, we're going to the Delta Tauri system. A colony on one of the planets that orbits Delta Tauri has gone silent.”

“Silent, ma'am?” someone closer to the front asked, and broke the heaviness that had settled over the room very suddenly. 

“Silent.” the XO confirmed. She scrolled through a screen or two on her data pad. “There appears to be no communication traffic leaving the planet at all, and all hails have gone unanswered. This mission is priority one right now, kids, came down straight from the brass at Landmark Station themselves. We're to investigate what's happened to the colony comm systems, and lend assistance to the locals in getting everything sorted. Seeing as we're heading into this completely blind I'm ordering everyone into the field at full armament. Combat hardsuits and proper class weapons. Understood?” There was a collective answer of affirmation and the XO nodded at the group curtly. “Everyone should report to their division leaders for squad assignments. Dismissed.”

The small crowd waited for the XO to leave the room before dispersing themselves. And luckily enough, Hongbin's division leader was waiting just outside the comm room to catch any of his division members that happened to have been in the meeting. “Ensign Lee Hongbin,” he greeted him by name and rank when it was Hongbin's turn to receive his assignment. “You've got a special assignment today.” 

“Sir?”

“You're a recent transfer onto this ship, are you not?” Hongbin's division leader asked, though rhetorically, as he simply continued on without waiting for confirmation either way from Hongbin himself. “Since we have no idea what sort of situation we're dropping into, we're mixing squad abilities as best we can. You and a small group of marines and tech specialists are being deployed with Cabal team A.”

Hongbin's eyebrows arched a bit; he was unable to hide the surprised look that crossed over his features. Being sent out with the kinetics? “I didn't think that the cabal teams worked with other units.” he replied. 

“This is a special case.” his division leader answered. “Head down to deck five and prep your gear. Talk to First-Lieutenant Kim Wonshik when you're finished for further instruction.” 

Hongbin nodded stiffly and saluted his division leader before he turned and headed off to deck five as instructed. Deck five was the lowest point on the ship; it contained rows of weapons and personal gear lockers, the armory, and the shuttles. At the far end of the ship was a large set of doors that only opened in order to deploy or receive the shuttles, or supply shipments if the ship happened to be in port. 

Hongbin's personal locker was towards the end of the last row of lockers banking the far right wall. Luckily enough there didn't seem to be many other people hovering around, so he was able to sort his gear out without much fuss. Hongbin changed out of his fatigues and into his combat undersuit, before he pulled his armor out of its case. It was a brand new, deep cobalt blue hardsuit that Hongbin had been given when promoted and transferred to his new position on the ship. He put it on piece by piece, starting from the feet up and once he had every piece clamped and locked into place, he powered on the hardsuit computer and power assists. The hardsuits were quite heavy and if the power assists were not turned on, the sections hung heavy on Hongbin's body and made it difficult for him to move around quickly. The computer and system functions were contained in a compartment in the center of the back portion of his hardsuit, and he could control it with console commands from a panel located in the forearm section of his left arm. 

Once he was comfortable in his armor, he finally pulled one of his two main weapon cases from the locker. Hongbin opted to go with his slightly better spec'd weapon for today's mission, since they did not know what they were walking into and he didn't want to risk being taken unawares by, well, anything. Especially since this was going to be his first mission in his new postion. He wanted to perform well. 

He took the gun out of its small case. It didn't look anything like a gun in its current state, but rather more of a heavy and dense metallic rectangle. In fact, it would only open and deploy into its proper shape if Hongbin flipped a certain switch and hit a button along the side of the gun's main body, just under where the make and model numbers were printed. This was standard for bigger weapons such as sniper rifles, assault rifles, and shot guns; only pistols tended to retain their own shape in storage and while carrying, simply because they were already so small. Hongbin clipped his weapon to the back of his hardsuit, just over his left shoulder for easy access. His standard issue pistol was clipped to his right hip and he declared himself ready. After Hongbin grabbed his helmet from the top shelf of his locker, he was off to find Wonshik. 

It took some looking, but eventually he came upon Wonshik and the rest of his cabal, the same marines from that morning, waiting together by some hardcase storage boxes on the other side of the deck by the armory. All of them were suited up similarly to Hongbin, though their hardsuit colors and insignia were different from his own. 

“Lieutenant?” Hongbin queried as he came upon the group, and saluted when Wonshik turned around to face him. “Ensign Lee Hongbin. I've been assigned to your squad for today's mission.”

Wonshik gave Hongbin a look up and down while Hongbin felt himself turning red under such a strong gaze. There was just something about the way Wonshik was looking at him that had Hongbin squirming. Wonshik eventually nodded curtly at Hongbin to acknowledge him. “What's your class specialty?” he asked, right to the point. 

“Combat tech, sighting, and infiltration.”

Wonshik's eyebrows rose. “A sniper?” he glanced over his shoulder at his three friends, who shrugged collectively at him. “Wonder what the XO is expecting us to find down there if she's assigned a sniper and infiltration specialist to our squad.”

“We've already got a bunch of regular marines and combat engineers assigned to us today.” the fourth member of the cabal, the one Hongbin hadn't seen speak at breakfast, piped up. “Any of the marines would also be trained on the sniper rifle, but it couldn't hurt to have someone with the specialty come along with us.”

Wonshik nodded and seemed to be thinking this over as he turned back to Hongbin. “What are your live scores?”

At this, Hongbin froze. “Actually, sir, I haven't been deployed in the field in this class yet...”

“Yet?” Wonshik echoed, with a frown. “What's your service record?” 

“I was a research engineer for several years at Minerva Station until I could pass the qualification tests.” Hongbin replied, and lifted his chin high. He was incredibly proud of his accomplishments, especially given he had initially been denied a combat role when he enlisted. 

“A scientist. It's pretty rare for someone to transfer out of a research division to an active duty combat class, isn't it?” 

“Wonshik.” a soft voice interrupted. Taekwoon, Hongbin recalled his name, was leaning against one of the large containers behind Wonshik with his arms folded across the deep red chest plate of his hardsuit. 

There was a silent moment when Wonshik and Taekwoon simply looked at one another, before Wonshik turned back to Hongbin. “Alright. We're deploying in shuttle one when we get into system. Be there with the rest of the squad when the call is made.” 

Hongbin saluted before he turned on his heel and headed away.

Their shuttle landed several kilometers outside of the colony's boundary, and on XO's orders the shuttle pilots were to remain on standby in case the squads required quick extraction. Three squads had landed on the planet and were approaching the colony from different directions; Cabal team A from the northwest, Cabal team B from the south, and a third squad headed up by the XO herself from the northeast. Since the situation had become no clearer as they approached the planet, the XO ordered complete long-comm radio silence between the squads to be broken only in the event of an emergency. Local communication between immediate squad members was permitted. 

Wonshik was the ranking officer for the squad Hongbin had been assigned to and once they had gotten situated on the ground, he addressed everyone in a calm, though firm voice, through their local helmet-to-helmet communications. “We're about three klicks from the colony. Weapons at the ready and if you see anything strange at all, I want to know about it immediately.” 

Given that his sniper rifle didn't lend itself well to situations that required a lot of marching about, Hongbin opted to pull his pistol from his hip instead as they headed off. The terrain on this planet was a drab brown with little vegetation in the area of their landing site, and also very rocky in composition. The squad found themselves having to squeeze through or over rock formations. Twice, Hongbin had to help the marine next to him up after the marine had stumbled over a rock or protrusion. 

“Thanks,” the marine opened a private channel to communicate with Hongbin after the second time he pulled the marine off the ground. “Sorry about that.”

“Don't worry.” Hongbin replied with a smile, and hoped it was apparent in his voice. All of the squad had their combat face shields up on their helmets; so the most that could be visible of Hongbin was his eyes if the visor wasn't catching the sun. “What's your name, soldier?”

“Han Sanghyuk, specialist.” the marine replied. 

Sanghyuk's lower rank and obvious youth told Hongbin everything he needed to know about the young marine's service record; he surmised Sanghyuk hadn't been serving long, perhaps an estimate of two and a half years was being generous. “Are you strictly combat class, Sanghyuk?” 

“Yes sir, just a soldier.” He jabbed a thumb over his shoulder to indicate the assortment of weapons he was carrying and lifted the assault rifle he had in his arms. “I'm not really good at the tech stuff, and I'm nothing like our lieutenant over there.” He tilted his head forward to indicate Wonshik at the front of the squad. 

“Do you know much about the lieutenant, Sanghyuk?” Hongbin asked curiously as he too turned to glance at Wonshik ahead of them. 

“Sure. I've been on the same ship as his cabal for a while now. You're new right?” 

“Recently transferred.” Hongbin corrected, and motioned at Wonshik. “Tell me about our lieutenant.” 

“Military brat through and through.” Sanghyuk replied. “Both of his parents are military so he grew up on ships. Even if he wasn't kinetic I think he still would have joined up because of his parents. He's vanguard class; he likes being out front leading the way and getting up close to fight in order to use his kinetics. But he also really likes that shotgun of his. And he doesn't go easy on you at all if you spar with him.” Sanghyuk's voice betrayed the number of losses he'd suffered from sparring with Wonshik, and Hongbin could only chuckle to himself.

Following shortly behind Wonshik was Taekwoon, his deep red combat hardsuit a stark contrast to Wonshik's silver-grey armor. But most curiously, despite the order for everyone to have weapons at the ready, Taekwoon's sidearm was still clipped to his hip, and he carried no other weapons. Everyone in the field carried a sidearm—usually a standard issue military branded pistol—and a weapon of their class, unless their class specifications called for more. Hongbin got Sanghyuk's attention again and motioned to Taekwoon. “And what's his deal? How can he get away with ignoring the weapons out order?”

“That's Second-Lieutenant Jung Taekwoon.” Sanghyuk huffed as he climbed over yet another boulder that was in the squad's way. “I don't know much about him. He only ever fights with his kinetics; I've never even seem him fire a weapon before outside of range time on the ship. I think he only carries it because he has to, you know? If the XO was here I think he'd have it at the ready but he can probably get away with it because Lieutenant Kim doesn't care.”

Hongbin hummed a small sound in reply. “I guess if his hands are free it's easier to use his powers if they're needed immediately instead of having to stow his gun first.” 

“Makes sense, sir.” Sanghyuk replied.

Suddenly, up at the front, Wonshik ordered the squad to a halt by silently holding a fist up next to his head and their comms crackled as a squad-wide channel was opened. “We've got the outskirts of the colony in sight. Ensign Lee, come here.” Wonshik motioned Hongbin forward. 

Hongbin exchanged a quick glance with Sanghyuk before he jogged forward to the front of the squad and stood next to Wonshik. “Sir?”

“I need a visual sweep.” 

Hongbin clipped his pistol to his hip before he reached over his shoulder to unlatch his sniper rifle. He deployed it quickly, and it unfolded to its full size in a fraction of a second. With the butt of it pressed against his shoulder, Hongbin zoomed in with the scope and took a slow look of the colony from the left to the right, and back to the left again. When he didn't find anything at all, he frowned and dropped the rifle from the ready position and keyed a command into his suit. A digital display overlaid itself over his visor that allowed him see certain readings about their surrounding environment without compromising visibility. The information on his heads-up display, or HUD, didn't tell Hongbin anything he didn't already know. The only nearby lifeforms on the radar were his squadmates, indicated by green dots. No one else. 

“Visual sweep confirms HUD output,” Hongbin reported. “I don't see anything or anyone hostile. No movement.” 

“Alright, weapons at the ready, we're not taking any chances with this.” Wonshik called to the squad at large, and motioned them forward again. 

The squad swept into the colony silently, and began to look around. It was eerily quiet once they got into the colony proper; there were no sounds of life at all. No local fauna making noise, no sounds to indicate the colonists were moving about. It was as Hongbin's HUD had said: there was nothing and no one. The colony was abandoned.

When a preliminary search of the immediate area yielded no clues, Wonshik ordered the squad to break into small units to cover more ground. Hongbin was paired with a couple marines including Sanghyuk and a combat engineer and they then proceeded off down what seemed to be a residential sort of area. All of the buildings were the same style and build, definitely some sort of prefabricated, easy-to-install set-up that likely made colonial living a little easier to construct. 

“I have a bad feeling about this.” one of the marines murmured. Hongbin found himself agreeing with her. 

“There,” Sanghyuk motioned with the muzzle of his rifle to a building just ahead of them. “That house on the left. The door is open.” 

The small group hurried over and after a quick check, determined the building was empty, like all the others. But something was telling Hongbin to check this particular unit, so he pushed against the gyros holding the door in place and headed into the house as the rest of his group followed. 

It looked like a standard residential home, really. There were some children's toys on the floor of what appeared to be the common area and a holo-screen mounted on the wall. Nothing really appeared to be out of place; it was as if the owners had just stepped out for an errand. But when they discovered the kitchen, it told a different story. 

Dinner had been set on the table, who knew how long ago. The food was still in its serving dishes, and places had been set around the table for a family of five. There was still liquid in some of the glasses, though it was obvious they had been out for some time. 

“This colony wasn't just abandoned.” Hongbin murmured, and keyed a command into his suit to have his helmet camera take a couple pictures of the scene before them. “Something happened here that made these people leave in the middle of a meal.”

Suddenly, the comms crackled to life and the XO's voice came through. “All units to the far right side of the colony, check your HUD for coordinates.” she ordered. 

Hongbin and his team hurried back to Wonshik to regroup with the rest of their squad before heading off to the meeting point. The XO was not an easily shaken woman, but there was something in her voice that put Hongbin and everyone else on edge. 

When the three squads came together, what that something was became very apparent. 

The XO and her squad were found standing along the edge of a crater that definitely should not have been there. Several tech specialists were taking readings of the crater; measuring distance, scooping soil samples. A couple marines could be seen pointing at blast marks. But what was really throwing everyone off was the large, solid black obelisk sticking out straight up from the center of the crater.

And Hongbin knew then that something very, very bad had happened to the colonists.


	2. A Defensive Stance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wonshik has an important meeting with the XO.

It was between shift rotations so the mess hall was empty. Wonshik was alone for the moment though he knew that would be short lived. The other three members of his cabal were never far away, and they did everything together—Wonshik knew since he had come down for breakfast, the others would not be far behind. 

Wonshik selected his breakfast of choice from the ration box touch screen and waited for a moment while the mechanisms inside of it whirred and buzzed as it prepared his food. The machine played a happy little jingle when it was ready and a tray popped out from a slot just below the touch screen. Wonshik absently mumbled a thanks at the ration box, who's hospitality programming chirped a bright 'you're welcome!' as he shuffled away. 

He took a seat at his usual table but it was only when he was settled that Wonshik notice the table was missing its salt and pepper shakers. Instead of getting up, because Wonshik was the epitome of exhaustion at the moment, he stretched a hand out towards the next table over. His nerve endings itched beneath his skin as he concentrated and the air around his palm crackled and glowed a faint green. With a quick downward flick of his wrist and a grabbing motion from his fingers, the salt and pepper shakers from the other table lifted and came directly into his palm. Doing this was second nature to him now; Wonshik didn't even need to look up from his eggs while he did it.

“XO doesn't like it when people use their kinetics in public areas of the ship.” A voice from behind Wonshik broke the peaceful silence he had been sitting in.

“XO isn't here.” Wonshik mumbled as he gently salted his potatoes. 

Taekwoon circled around the table and took the seat across from Wonshik. “You would have expended less energy if you got up and grabbed the salt.” 

“You sound like our old instructor.” Wonshik made a face at Taekwoon, who stared back at him passively. “Where is Jinwoon? Sunggyu?” he asked in order to change the subject.

“They'll be up shortly.” 

Wonshik and his team members had been assigned together on the first day of training and had not spent any lengthy time apart from one another since then, except for a day or two of shore leave. Wonshik's first impression of his group had not been a good one. The scientists who worked with the training units had given all the specialist recruits an extensive battery of physical and personality tests, in order to determine the best squad configurations. The moment he had met the others Wonshik had been _sure_ it was a mistake. 

Jinwoon was a nice, easy-going guy, Wonshik thought at the time, but he didn't think Jinwoon had it in him to be a real fighter when the situation came down to it. Sunggyu was all about getting work done right the first time, so he had more time to goof off later, which didn't exactly appeal to Wonshik's need to always be busy. Taekwoon was large, quiet, and boring rube from some backwater colony. Wonshik was positive, _so positive_ , that he was beyond the three of them. After all, he had grown up in a military family and always had access to training and ship amenities as a kid; specialist training after he had completed boot camp was simply a formality at this point.

As it turned out, Jinwoon was amazing at marine hand-to-hand and close quarters combat which made him a Vanguard, just like Wonshik. Sunggyu was so picky about his definition of “things done right” that they almost never had any downtime outside of what little their instructors granted them. And Taekwoon... Taekwoon was large, quiet, and boring but he had great weapons scores and a high ranked hand-to-hand ability. More than that, however, Taekwoon was the most powerful kinetic that Wonshik had ever met. 

Wonshik spent so many weeks with just these three men for companions that by the end of it, he couldn't imagine serving without them. And luckily for Wonshik he didn't have to—kinetic marines who served together in cabals were transferred to postings as units, instead of individually. They spent so long during specialist training honing their abilities and using their kinetics to work off of and around one another that military command thought disturbing group dynamics would be detrimental to their combat abilities in the long run. There were kinetic marines that served individually, but they generally were not assigned to front line combat positions.

These three men were his brothers, and Wonshik was sure he couldn't live without them.

Despite his earlier admonishment of Wonshik's actions, Taekwoon wiggled his fingers and lifted one half of Wonshik's English muffin from the tray. He pulled it towards himself until it was close enough to pluck from the air. Wonshik glared at him playfully and Taekwoon just smirked. 

“Did you file your report from the other day?” Taekwoon asked after he had swallowed a bite of the English muffin. 

“Yeah, I've got to meet with the XO later to go over a couple things about it.” Wonshik sighed and sat back in his seat, arms folded across his chest. “She's always on my ass about writing the damn things professionally.” 

“So do that.” 

“Listen, if she doesn't want me to describe rocks and twigs and shit in depth, she shouldn't ask me to make sure my report is written with 'excruciating detail', okay?” 

Taekwoon fixed Wonshik with a flat look. “You know what part she meant.”

“Sure,” Wonshik spread his hands wide. “But it's not like the admirals are ever going to read my report. It's all going to get filed away somewhere. Then they'll drag it up in fifty years when they get around to forming a committee to look into the issue, by which time it'll have worked itself out, I'm sure.” 

“What do you think happened there? With the colonists? And the... statue..?” 

“Dunno.” 

“Well it's certainly concerning, isn't it?” Taekwoon puffed a cheek out in thought. “Empty colony and a giant object we can't point back to an origin. Have any of the test results on it come back yet?” 

Wonshik shook his head. “I'll see what XO can tell me, but I bet it isn't going to be much.” 

Taekwoon crunched into the English muffin again and let an easy silence settle between them. Wonshik made quick work of the rest of his meal and stood up to return the tray to a sleek metal container that stood next to the ration box. He slid the empty tray into the slot until it clicked, and the ration box thanked him for 'doing his part' in keeping their ship clean. Taekwoon just chuckled softly when Wonshik returned. 

“I still don't know why they thought giving the breakfast bot a personality was a good idea.” 

“Beats me. Someone smarter and better paid thought of it, I'm sure.” Wonshik flopped back into his seat. 

“By the way,” Taekwoon squared his shoulders. “What did you think of the ship's newest acquisition?”

Wonshik arched his eyebrows. “The combat barrier shielding tech the ship got retrofitted with the last time we were in dry dock?” 

The flat look was back. “I meant our new sniper friend.”

“Ah, the Infiltrator, Ensign Lee.” Wonshik huffed a laugh and folded his arms across his chest once more. “Why are you curious? Do you think he could teach Sunggyu a thing or two?” While Jinwoon and Wonshik were Vanguards, Sunggyu's combat class designation and abilities were categorized as Ghost. This meant Sunggyu mainly used his kinetics in conjunction with stealth abilities for a number of different scenarios. Taekwoon was officially listed as a Maven, which meant he had powerful mastery of his kinetic abilities and used them as his first choice in combat. No other kinetic classification really fit Taekwoon and his abilities. Mavens of other classes existed as well, for soldiers who were outliers in their own groups. 

“I thought he looked like your type.” 

“My type of what?” Wonshik grunted. 

“He's very pretty.” Taekwoon danced around the question. 

Wonshik pushed his chair back and stood up. “I've got to go meet the commander.” 

“Mm,” Taekwoon merely hummed and waved Wonshik off as he turned on his heel. 

He really wasn't due to meet their XO for another twenty minutes or so, but Wonshik didn't want to stick around for that conversation much longer. So what if—what the hell was his name?—Hongbin was pretty? Taekwoon could hit up their newest recruit if he thought Hongbin was so _pretty_. To kill some time, Wonshik opted to take the stairs up from the crew deck to the bridge, where the XO's office was located. Still grumbling to himself, he bumped into someone else because he had not been paying attention to where he was going. 

“Sorry, excuse me.” 

“Oh! Wonshik, it's you. Where are you headed?” a light voice replied, a smile evident in its tone. 

He glanced up and realized that he had smacked into the leader of the other cabal stationed on the ship, a tall, lithe man named Taemin. Wonshik and Taemin actually knew one another quite well; Wonshik's mother served with Taemin's father for a time, so they grew up together on the same ship. Wonshik had enlisted before Taemin, however, so it was several years before they met again at their current posting. 

“Ah, I've got a meeting with the XO about my Delta Tauri report...” 

“Me too,” Taemin smiled and motioned for Wonshik to follow along behind him. “Let's go together.” 

“Why would she need to go over the report with you? You're usually meticulous about this stuff.” Wonshik asked with an eyebrow quirked at Taemin's back. 

“I suppose we'll find out.” Taemin replied cheerfully. 

It was a short walk from the bridge stairwell, through the command center, to the XO's office on the other side of the ship. Taemin pinged the door lock with an open request, and after receiving approval from the inside, the sensor flickered from red to green. The door's gyros cycled open automatically. 

Wonshik and Taemin stepped inside the office. “Ma'am,” they stopped and saluted the XO simultaneously when she stood from her desk to greet them. She returned the salute with a curt nod, and motioned for the pair of them to have a seat in a small sitting area to the right of her desk. 

“So,” the XO began once Wonshik and Taemin had settled down. “I know I asked you here to discuss your mission reports, but... This is... going to be off the record.”

“Ma'am?” Taemin replied after he exchanged a glance quickly with Wonshik. His tone implied clarification was needed. 

“This discussion doesn't go beyond this room, understood?”

Wonshik merely nodded, and sat up a little straighter, curious to hear what exactly the XO had to say. He had been expecting a reprimand for his smart ass mission report, not some serious business discussion. 

The XO remained standing instead of joining them in a seat. Wonshik realized quickly that with the way she had positioned herself, she was blocking Wonshik and Taemin from the security camera on the other side of the room. And with her back to it, there was no way for anyone who might go back to watch the feed to get any lip reading in either. This was as private as a conversation was going to get on the ship.

“I gave your reports and my own to the captain as soon as you passed them along to me,” the XO began, her voice low and serious. “He submitted them and what little results we got from the tests the engineers took to command straight away. Captain Jung tried to follow up on them with command yesterday and got stonewalled. Command said it was a non-issue, not to be followed up on, and we would be given new mission parameters within the next solar day. They closed the inquiry.” 

Taemin and Wonshik exchanged another look and turned back to the XO. “A non-issue?” Wonshik asked incredulously. “An entire colony, at least a thousand people, are just gone and they want us to pretend it didn't happen?” 

“Something isn't right here, ma'am.” Taemin added with a frown. 

“No, it isn't.” the XO agreed. “The captain told me what little he could from the engineers' reports. The obelisk we found isn't even made of a known substance. They have no idea what it's made of, never mind where it could have come from.” 

“That's legitimately terrifying, if true.” Taemin replied.

“It gets worse.” 

Wonshik scoffed. “Worse than the colony being gone and not being able to do anything about it?”

“Yes,” the XO cleared her throat. “I've got a good friend who serves on the D.S.S Amsterdam. She sent me a message yesterday—encrypted on my private channel. Around the same time we were in Delta Tauri, her ship and it's crew were also investigating a colony that went silent in the Helvetios system, on the planet Dimidium.” 

“Helvetios..?” Taemin's eyebrows were furrowed together, and he looked to Wonshik once again. “Wasn't the ship we grew up on stationed in that sector? The Pegasus Quadrangle?” 

“Yeah, Helvetios is on the other side of Directorate space.” Wonshik replied, and looked from Taemin back to their XO. “Completely on the opposite side from Delta Tauri.” 

“Their investigation report is identical to ours.” the XO replied. “The colony was completely abandoned, and just outside of the colony boundary was a large black obelisk. Command is stonewalling them and their reports too.”

There was a long moment of silence before anyone spoke again. “Now what?” Taemin asked. 

The XO shook her head. “I don't know. But until the captain and I can find out more, it's imperative that the rest of the crew does not find out about this.” She punctuated every single one of her words very carefully. “You two are both squad leaders and among the highest ranked officers on this ship. Do what you can to deflect any questions. For now the official story is that everything has been submitted to command and we are to continue with business as usual until we hear from them otherwise. That should buy us some time with the crew while we figure out what to do.” 

“I don't like this, ma'am.” Wonshik replied with a slow exhale. 

“Neither do I, but it's the best I've got for now.” she replied and motioned the pair of them up. Wonshik and Taemin stood, shoulders squared. “We're going to be on a burn all day, no scheduled stops. I want the both of you to take today off from regular duties. Look relaxed and let's hope the rest of the crew follows suit.” 

“Ma'am,” Both Taemin and Wonshik nodded firmly. 

“You're dismissed.”

The pair of them saluted once again and left the XO's office without another word. Wonshik was still trying to process everything the XO told them when Taemin placed a hand gently on his shoulder. 

“Let's just do our best for now.” he whispered before he pulled up a bright smile. “So I'll catch you later, mm? Let's eat dinner together.” he continued in a normal tone for anyone who might have been listening, and said a quick goodbye as he headed off for the elevator. 

Wonshik exhaled slowly, and rubbed at the back of his neck. Now what? How was he supposed to act like everything was perfectly fine when their XO just dropped something so heavy right into his lap? He needed to go clear his head, and nothing did that better than a good fight. 

After he returned to the third floor crew deck, Wonshik passed through the mess hall to the far side of the ship, nodding a quick hello at a group of marines who greeted him, in order to reach the gym. It wasn't anything great—space was limited in a combat frigate, so there was only so much they could spare for a gym. But it was enough. There was the standard machine or two, plus free weights and an area for sparring. And the open sparring area was exactly where Wonshik was headed. He didn't even bother to change into more appropriate exercise clothing; he simply pulled off his uniform top and kicked off his boots before he stepped onto the mat in his fatigue pants and tank top.

“Who wants to give it a go?” Wonshik called to the room at large, arms held wide. There were a few other off-duty soldiers in the room, but not many. 

“No one!” a voice replied, to scattered laughter. “You've beaten us all already!” 

“Come on!” he exclaimed, to more laughter. 

“I'll do it.” said a voice from Wonshik's right. 

He turned to see who it was and pursed his lips together in a hard line. Hongbin stood at the end of the mat in his workout clothing, his hair damp. It looked as if he had been working out for quite a bit before Wonshik turned up. But, beggars couldn't be choosers. If no one else wanted to spar with him then he'd have to take Hongbin up on it. 

“Fine, come here.” Wonshik motioned at the empty space on the mat across from himself. 

Hongbin stepped out of his shoes and moved into the area Wonshik had indicated. “What style do you want me to use?” 

Wonshik waved this question away with a dismissive motion. “I'm sure I can counter whatever it is you've learned. Set up.” he commanded as he slid into an offensive, striking position. 

He waited just long enough for Hongbin to ready himself before he shot forward. Wonshik threw a punch at Hongbin's jaw, but his sparring partner realized at the last second that this was a feint. Hongbin was able to twist himself out of the way just enough that Wonshik's other fist glanced off of his ribs instead of hitting him full on in the stomach. 

“Nice,” Hongbin huffed as he leapt back a short distance. 

Wonshik wasn't going to give Hongbin a chance to reorient himself—that just wasn't his style. He surged forward again, this time very open about where he was going with his attacks. This was supposed to be practice after all, he wasn't supposed to _intentionally_ hurt Hongbin. That didn't mean he was going to hold back, however. Wonshik struck from the left and the right, coming wide on some and close in with the others. Hongbin maintained a defensive position and blocked nearly everything Wonshik threw at him. 

“Fight back!” Wonshik demanded after several moments of this, his chest heaving. 

“You seem stressed out about something, sir.” Hongbin replied in a cheeky tone that Wonshik definitely didn't like. 

He growled out a low sound and his fist was headed for Hongbin's face faster than the other man could blink. Hongbin managed to block this, sending Wonshik's arm wide, and for the first time threw his own answering punch. But it hit only air; Wonshik had already stepped away and used the opening to slam his fist into Hongbin's ribs good and hard, knocking the air from his lungs. 

“Okay, wow.” Hongbin gasped a bit, an arm wrapped around his middle. 

“I have a lot of things to be stressed out about,” Wonshik circled Hongbin, to give him a moment to work through the pain. “But I don't want to talk about me. Let's talk about you, mm? What's your deal?” 

“My deal?” Hongbin repeated as he straightened up and slipped back into a defensive stance.

Wonshik automatically threw himself at Hongbin once more. But it seemed as if getting one good hit in had incited something in Hongbin. He fought back now, throwing his own punches between ducking and blocking Wonshik's. This was exactly what Wonshik had wanted, someone to keep him on his toes and let him forget everything except what his feet and hands were doing. 

“Why are you here?” Wonshik panted between punches, and ducked under a swing of Hongbin's arm. 

“I worked very hard to get a posting on this ship.” Hongbin grunted in reply. 

Wonshik barked a breathless sort of laugh at this. “Everyone's worked hard to get where they are. You're not special.” 

“You'd think otherwise if you saw my range scores.” 

“Yeah? Then show me sometime. Walk the walk.” 

“Maybe I will.” 

Hongbin changed his strategy then. He pulled his punches in and kept them short and tight, forcing Wonshik to step closer to him in order to try to get a hit to connect. Wonshik's biceps burned with his extended effort, so he decided to finish this up quickly. Hongbin threw his next two punches, one, two, and Wonshik caught each of Hongbin's hands within his own. Momentarily stunned, Hongbin blinked wide eyes at Wonshik who in turn swept Hongbin's legs out from beneath him. Wonshik released Hongbin's hands when he dropped down onto his back, and flopped down onto the mat next to him.

“Asshole,” Hongbin grunted when he found enough oxygen to breathe again.

“Yeah, I get that a lot.” Wonshik replied, unconcerned, as he reclined back on his hands. 

An uneasy silence stretched between them, only broken by their heavy breathing. Eventually, Hongbin managed to sit up and began to inspect his split lip with his fingers. “Looks like you got me good at least once.” he said in a cordial tone. 

“You got me too. One of my ears is ringing still.” Wonshik tugged on it a bit, as if that would help at all. “It took you a bit to get going but once you did... you move beautifully.” Hongbin didn't appear to have been expecting that sort of compliment, because he flushed red and Wonshik could tell it wasn't just from exertion. He decided to change the subject. “Show me your range abilities sometime. I mean it.” 

“I... yes, sir.” Hongbin nodded and pushed himself to his feet. “I'm going to pop into the medbay to get this looked at,” he motioned to his lip. “And grab some aspirin before the ache sets in. Sir.” 

As Hongbin left, Wonshik caught himself staring after the ship's newest addition, and had to shake himself out of it. 

Taekwoon had been right about one thing. Hongbin _was_ pretty.


	3. Hit the Ground Running

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Taekwoon receives some very bad news while on shore leave.

The alarm beeped and though the volume was set low, it was enough to rouse Taekwoon out of bed. He had only been half asleep really, simply dozing because subconsciously he had been waiting for the alarm and didn't want to miss his cue. Taekwoon pressed his feet into his slippers and stood in order to stretch for a moment before he headed for the small desk and chair just opposite of his tiny bed in his extra small room. He couldn't complain about the size though; Taekwoon was one of the few people on the ship who even had a private room. He'd take a tiny single room over the larger, more spacious dormitory rooms a lot of the other crew bunked in any day.

The light in the center of his comm box was flashing. The small 5x5cm smooth metal cube was the only thing currently on the desk, and Taekwoon pulled it forward so it was settled directly in the middle. He sat up straighter in his seat, squared his shoulders, and cleared his throat before he pressed the flashing light. As the call connected, a screen in the wall in front of Taekwoon flickered to life and a familiar face came into view. 

“Hakyeon, hey.” Taekwoon murmured, and small smile tugged at the corners of his lips. 

“Taekwoonie!” The man on the screen singsonged at him, with only minimal video/audio delay, which was impressive given they were communicating ship to ship on personal, non-priority channels. Hakyeon raised a hand in a wave. “How are you? You didn't shake yourself awake again for me, did you?” 

Taekwoon laughed softly. “It's 3AM ship-time, Hakyeon.”

Hakyeon curled his lip at hearing this. “I knew it. You don't always have to sacrifice your sleep for me you know...”

“The time difference between our ships is 14 hours isn't it? One of us has to wake up in the middle of the night if we want to talk.” Taekwoon shrugged away Hakyeon's concern. Times and dates were a logistic nightmare when serving in space—Taekwoon still wasn't sure how the ship engineers figured out exactly how it worked mathematically across a broad spectrum given all the ships that were in the Directorate Navy. All Taekwoon knew was that there was no sunrise and sunset in space, and FTL travel always muddled things a bit. Ships generally each had their own “time zone”, and shifts on the ships were split between three different 8 hour blocks referred to as A, B, and C shifts.

“I still don't like disturbing you like this.” Hakyeon pouted a bit. “But if you're sure.” 

“I am.” Taekwoon waved a hand dismissively. “Tell me how you are, mm? You were out of communication for a bit.” 

Hakyeon smiled at Taekwoon, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. “I'm fine. We were deployed to a colony that needed rebuilding and relief aid after a huge storm on the planet ravaged it. They were saying the storm was probably fives times worse than anything that's ever hit on Earth. Ever. That must have been terrible for the colonists.” The look on Hakyeon's face said more about the things he had seen on that colony than anything he could have said aloud. 

Taekwoon didn't really have a frame of reference for how strong the storm must have been—he had never been to Earth before, and just barely remembered the little he had learned about the historical weather patterns of the planet. “What did you do down there?”

“The usual. I helped a bit with pre-fab construction, but mostly I stuck with kinetic barrier shoring and medical stuff.” Hakyeon passed a hand over his eyes and shrugged. 

Taekwoon was silent for a moment before he spoke again. “If you need anything, let me know.” 

“I will.” 

A heaviness had settled over their conversation. Taekwoon gave Hakyeon the time to calm himself and took the moment to give Hakyeon a once over. They had met a year or so ago by chance when both of their ships had been docked at the same station for refueling and kept in contact since. Hakyeon very clearly developed feelings for Taekwoon over the course of their conversations, and Taekwoon returned his sentiments, but neither one of them had ever gotten around to discussing the elephant in the room, as it were. Taekwoon was concerned with navy fraternization rules; he outranked Hakyeon. 

“Hey,” Hakyeon spoke up again, this time with a smile. “You haven't told me how you were yet.” 

“I'm alright.” Taekwoon puffed a cheek out as he considered his answer. “I do have a concern though.” 

“What is it?”

“Wonshik... I've got a feeling he's not being entirely transparent with me and the others about something.” 

“Have you talked to him about it?”

Taekwoon shook his head. “Won't do any good. I know better than that. He won't say anything until he's ready to.” 

Hakyeon pursed his lips and rested his chin in his hands. “Do you have any idea what it's about?”

“I couldn't begin to speculate.” Taekwoon shrugged. 

“Ah,” Hakyeon puffed his cheeks out and exhaled slowly. “Oh, by the way, I ran into your brother.” 

Taekwoon closed his eyes and sighed. “Augh... where?” 

“On our ship, actually. We picked up his spec-ops squad on their way to some planet we were going to be passing by on our way elsewhere. I don't know where they went after that.” 

Taekwoon just sighed again. “Can we not talk about him?” 

Hakyeon laughed. “Sorry, sorry. Are you guys still scheduled for that stop at Olympia Station?”

“As far as I am aware.” Taekwoon leaned back in his seat and folded his arms across his chest. “We're supposed to stay for at least two days. I'm looking forward to some shore leave. We've been on a consistent FTL burn for the last... who knows how long.” 

“Well, I've still got my fingers crossed that we'll be there at the same time. Our ship had to skirt around a magnetic storm earlier this week and put us a little off course.” Hakyeon frowned. 

“It'll be okay.” Taekwoon offered Hakyeon a small smile and was pleased when Hakyeon returned it. 

“I want to talk longer but I should let you get back to sleep.” Hakyeon lifted his hand to wave at Taekwoon again. “Message me soon.” 

“I will. Have a good day, Hakyeon.” 

“Goodnight Taekwoon.” 

When the call disconnected the screen turned itself off and the comm box dimmed. Taekwoon pushed it back to its spot against the wall and reclined in his chair. Hakyeon had seen his brother, huh? Taekwoon hadn't seen his brother since... it probably wasn't best to think about. Outside of holiday greetings Taekwoon generally didn't even talk to him, anyway. 

There was a soft knock on the door and Taekwoon leaned over without even standing from his chair in order to hit the button next to it that allowed the door to slide open. He hadn't bothered asking who it was before doing so; he knew before the door even opened that it was Wonshik. 

“Hey,” Wonshik shuffled into the room, hands in the pockets of his sweats. He flopped onto Taekwoon's bed, seeing as it was the only free area to take up residence, and stretched out on it in order to make himself comfortable. “Couldn't sleep either?”

“No, I was talking to Hakyeon.” 

Wonshik laughed. “Oh? When's the last time you saw him?” 

“In person? Three months ago.” 

“Ah, young love,” Wonshik pressed a hand to his chest dramatically. 

Taekwoon pursed his lips. “I'm older than you.”

Wonshik ignored Taekwoon and kept on. “Did you guys ever... you know, seal the deal?” he wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. 

Immediately, Taekwoon went red around the ears and he ducked his head in order to hide his face. “N-no...” 

“Why not? If he wants to lick you like a popsicle, just fucking let him.” 

“You are so lucky that if I tried to hit you with a singularity right now I'd get sucked in too and I don't feel like visiting the med bay.”

“Seriously, what's the deal?” 

“I'm just...” Taekwoon shrugged a bit and held his hands out in a 'what can you do?' sort of manner. “A bit concerned about fraternization regs, I guess.” 

“He doesn't even serve on this ship, so there's no way you could ever be accused of favoritism or something.”

“I guess. If everything works out, I should see him at Olympia.” 

Wonshik sat up and scooted to the edge of the bed, his elbows rested on his knees, hands folded. “Man, I'm so looking forward to getting off the ship for a bit. There's only so many treadmill kilometers I can run before I go stir crazy.” 

“Do we have an ETA?” 

“A solar day and a half, I think.” Wonshik stood and placed a hand on Taekwoon's shoulder. “Get some sleep.” And with that, he headed out of Taekwoon's room without another word. 

Just another day and a half, huh? Taekwoon spun slowly in his chair. 

Olympia Station was a colossal deep space station that was second only to Landmark Station in sheer size and population. Similar to the planet Saturn in design, the large spherical station had the docking bays for all incoming and outgoing ships surrounding the station itself in a ring. Ship crew members or station personnel could travel easily between the docking bays and cargo areas to the station proper via a rapid transit tram system.

At first glance, the station itself looked like a massive city; every available surface on the outside of the station was covered in residential and commercial quadrants. There was no artificial day/night cycle for the station's surface and as a consequence activity rarely ever stopped. Instead, for those who lived and worked on the surface, resting periods were taken according to personal need. 

Inside of the station was vastly different. A 30 hour day/night cycle was incorporated for the interior residents and businesses: lights were dimmed and the holographic sky displayed a live feed of the stars surrounding the station for 8 of the 30 hours per “day”. The interior also held the station's governmental centers and representatives, central traffic control, parks, and other recreational facilities. 

After their ship had docked, the clamps put in place, and the decontamination process finished, all non-essential crew were finally released for shore leave. Taekwoon was the first to disembark. Dressed in one of the few civilian outfits he owned, a black sweater and jeans, he quickly double checked his miniature data pad to make sure he had the correct name of the location he was meeting Hakyeon at as he headed out.

Taekwoon was incredibly antsy on the tram ride from the docking bay to the station. Even though he had managed to secure a seat for himself, he relinquished it before long to another passenger in favor of standing by the door and tapping his feet impatiently. Space stations in general, especially large ones like Olympia, didn't sit well with Taekwoon. He had grown up on an incredibly small colony—1700 people at the most—that the 15 million count population of Olympia felt suffocating, claustrophobia inducing. 

The tram stopped at the terminal station and everyone piled out. Taekwoon hurried off and checked the name of the meeting place once more as he went; it gave him something else to focus on besides the people around him, bustling back and forth. He wasn't sure where this location actually was, so Taekwoon hopped in line to wait for a grav-car taxi. When there was a free vehicle, Taekwoon slipped into the front seat. It took him a moment to figure out how to input the desired destination address—why the grav-car systems weren't standard across the board he'd never know—and then all he had to do was sit back while the grav-car piloted itself to the end point Taekwoon had given it. 

The grav-car lifted itself up into the flow of traffic, passing well over the heads of the pedestrians below. Out of the crush of people, Taekwoon was able to release a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding. At least from above he could appreciate the view. There was a lot to see: all manner of flashing lights, advertisements, billboards, marketplaces, crowds around street performers, and even open spaces. 

The ride was short. When it was time to descend the grav-car pulled out of traffic and gently set itself down into an open parking space along a side road. The computer beeped and presented a small map on the screen to show Taekwoon where to walk from where the grav-car had set down. He pulled his mini data pad from his pocket and tapped it on the sensor next to the computer; the information displayed on the grav-car computer screen transferred to display on Taekwoon's data pad instantly. 

“Thanks,” Taekwoon murmured at the grav-car as he hit the 'ride finished' button that had popped up and then slipped out of the vehicle. When the door shut behind him, the grav-car lifted and turned around, heading back the way it had come in order to pick up someone else. 

Taekwoon took a look at his map in an attempt to commit it to memory before he slid the thin data pad back in his pocket. It wasn't a far walk, but he did have to head back out to the main road. Less crowded here than the tram station, Taekwoon was able to weave between people as he headed along. It was interesting to see so many people who were not other marines. There were other marines and naval personnel who were assigned to this station of course, but the civilians greatly out numbered them. It was nice to see kids too, running and playing in the crowd, or hanging out with their friends. Taekwoon had always liked kids.

His final destination quickly came into view and with it, Hakyeon. A smile tugged at Taekwoon's lips and he pursed them together in order to keep from smiling too widely. Hakyeon was standing under the awning of the restaurant he had chosen, hands clasped behind him, as he rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet. Taekwoon could tell that his friend was fighting back nervous energy as well, but what for, Taekwoon couldn't guess. 

“Hey,” he said in greeting when he was close enough that Hakyeon would have been able to hear his soft voice. He lifted a hand in a small wave.

“Taekwoonie!” Hakyeon's eyes lit up, and he reached forward to grab the hand Taekwoon lifted. He pulled Taekwoon forward and immediately wrapped his arms around Taekwoon's wide form. 

He was surprised, but Taekwoon reached up to return that hug and he cradled Hakyeon against himself gently. “I missed you.” he whispered. 

“I missed you too.” Hakyeon pressed his face against the crook of Taekwoon's neck and inhaled deeply before he pulled away from Taekwoon entirely. “I hope you're hungry. This restaurant is supposed to have really great reviews.”

Taekwoon offered Hakyeon another smile and motioned for him to lead the way inside. The restaurant Hakyeon had chosen wasn't anything really special, if Taekwoon was to be honest. It might have really great reviews, sure, but the second half of that sentence had remained unspoken. It was a restaurant with great reviews—that the two of them could afford. Neither Taekwoon nor Hakyeon made a lot of money. 

They selected a booth towards the back of the restaurant and slid into the seats opposite of one another. Taekwoon perused the menu after plucking it from the card holder at the end of the table, and glanced up to ask Hakyeon if he knew what he wanted only to find the other man staring at him, a soft smile on his lips. 

“...yes?” Taekwoon asked, an eyebrow quirked. 

“I'm just really glad we were able to meet up.” Hakyeon explained with his smile still in place. “You're so much more attractive in person you know.” 

Taekwoon's face flushed immediately and he flapped the menu card at Hakyeon while simultaneously attempting to hide behind his free hand. “Just pick what you want to eat.” 

Dinner was a quiet affair. Taekwoon wasn't big on talking in general, but he was even less inclined to speak while he was eating. The food had been alright; on par for what he had expected when they walked into the restaurant and he had gotten an eyeful of the decor. The best part of the evening was simply sitting together with Hakyeon and sharing a meal. 

“I have somewhere else I want to take you.” Hakyeon said once they had settled the bill (after a small back and forth about who would pay for what). “If you're not too tired that is..?” 

Taekwoon was still running on ship-time, since there was no point in adjusting to the station's timezone when he was only staying two days. It was roughly 6AM as far as Taekwoon's body was concerned, and he had been up for most of the “night”. 

“Ah... If I'm with you I think I can make it a little longer.” It would have been a waste to go back to the ship to sleep now, Taekwoon figured. 

Hakyeon's face lit up with a smile and he linked arms with Taekwoon as they headed back outside. “It's not too far from here, I promise. We can walk there really quick.” 

Hakyeon steered Taekwoon down the sidewalk of the main road and they walked for a bit before they turned into a less crowded side street. They remained pressed against one another as they headed in the new direction even though there was the room enough to spread out. Taekwoon quickly lost track of the way they had come because Hakyeon suddenly started taking seemingly random turns. 

They were in a much more residential area now, with towering apartment buildings and squat multi-family homes squeezed in-between single residences. Even though Taekwoon and Hakyeon were currently the only people on the road they were heading down, Taekwoon still felt suffocated by the idea of the sheer number of people these buildings contained. 

“Here,” Hakyeon finally said, and pulled Taekwoon to a stop in front of a large apartment high rise. 

“Where are we?” 

Hakyeon merely smiled and tugged Taekwoon into the building. The lobby was nothing more than a narrow hallway that led directly to an elevator. They piled in, and Hakyeon selected the seventeenth floor from the holo-menu. Taekwoon closed his eyes, even though the ride was smooth; he just didn't like elevators. 

As he caught his breath, Taekwoon was dragged by Hakyeon from the elevator when the doors finally opened. There was a short walk down the hall and Hakyeon came to a stop in front of apartment 1705. 

“Here,” he said again. Hakyeon punched in the code on the door's lock which beeped happily as it released. He pushed the door open and motioned Taekwoon inside. 

The apartment was small: a one bedroom, one bathroom, combined kitchen/living room deal. Aside from the prefabricated (and cheaply made) display furniture used to fill space rather than give the illusion the apartment was lived in, it was bare; not an inhabited apartment by any means.

Hakyeon shut the door behind himself and the lock beeped another happy jingle as it automatically reengaged. “Do you like it?” 

“It's... dusty.” 

“Yes, it is.” Hakyeon laughed and made for the center of the living space, where he stopped with his hands on his hips. “But it's mine.” 

“You bought an apartment?” Taekwoon asked, incredulous. 

“Yeah. You know, my service is up in a year and a half... I just wanted to make sure I have somewhere to go right away. There will be a lot of opportunities for me on this station as well.” 

Taekwoon spun around slowly to take the apartment in again. “Do the windows open up this high?”

“No,” Hakyeon pouted. Clearly this was a downside for him. “The station only maintains atmosphere up to ten meters. Anything higher than that is all sealed against the vacuum.” 

“Still, it's not bad.” Taekwoon finally replied and turned once more to Hakyeon. 

“I also thought it would be good to have so... I mean I don't want to presume anything...” It wasn't like Hakyeon to have trouble getting his words out. Taekwoon reached out to take one of Hakyeon's hands to give him a gentle squeeze. “Once I get set up, if you're here on shore leave, you can stay here too instead of returning to your ship at night. And we can spend more time together.”

Taekwoon's heart started hammering in his throat, his pulse pounding in his ears. He took Hakyeon's other hand and held them both together in his own. “Hakyeon, I... I've been wanting to tell you something for a while now.” 

“I know,” Hakyeon sounded much more sure of himself. He pulled a hand away from Taekwoon's and reached up to place it at the nape of Taekwoon's neck. “But don't say it just yet.” 

Their lips had barely met when Hakyeon's data pad began to ping wildly in his pocket. 

“I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I thought I muted it. I—” he got a look at the screen. “Emergency channel?” 

“Answer it quickly.” Taekwoon's small eyes were wide. 

Hakyeon connected the call and put it on speaker. “Hakyeon!” A loud voice rang out of the tiny data pad. “Are you still on your date?” 

Taekwoon arched his eyebrows at Hakyeon, who looked a little sheepish at the question. “Yes, Jaehwan, yes. What is it, what's wrong?” 

The voice on the other end of the call, Jaehwan, was still half shouting, panicked. “Is he with you?” 

“Yes, we're in the apartment I told you about. Why?” 

“This announcement just went out across the station, across all ships! I've sent you the file!” 

A file transfer pop-up appeared on the data pad's screen, which Hakyeon was quick to accept. He opened the file with the data pad's holo-projector, so the content of the file would be displayed in front of the both them and could be interacted with without having to disconnect the call. 

“That's him, isn't it? You showed me his picture before!” Jaehwan was saying. The file loaded in full and Taekwoon's face was displayed on the holo-file, along with a list of his personal info and identifying features. “They want to arrest him!” 

“What the hell for?” Hakyeon asked, his brows furrowed. 

Taekwoon didn't say anything right away. He reached out to pinch the holo-file, zooming out so it wasn't focused entirely on himself and they could see the whole list. His blood instantly ran cold. 

“It's not just me,” he whispered, horrified. He scrolled through the list. Captain Jung. Their XO. Wonshik. The rest of his cabal. The other cabal. The flight deck crew. Yoona in Engineering. Yixing and Dongseok from the med bay. Even the ship's custodial staff. A hundred names. “This is... everyone. They want to arrest the _entire crew_ of the Vaduz.” 

Hakyeon gripped Taekwoon's elbow. “You need to leave.” 

Taekwoon had scrolled back up the list and found his own face staring back at him once more. 

“Yeah... I think so too.”


End file.
